Grafton reports 31% fall in sales

GRAFTON Group, the largest builders merchants in Ireland, saw a 31% fall in first-half sales to €990 million reflecting the deepening recession in construction.

Ireland was loss-making in the six months to the end of June while its British division made a profit, the group said yesterday. “The group has now entered the seasonally stronger trading period of the second half of the year, during which it expects to return to modest levels of profitable trading across the group,” it said.

In 2007, its turnover peaked at €3.2 billion against a projected revenue of just over €2bn in 2009.